Did attendance fall at RSNA 2012 because of a lack of "technology breakthroughs"?

The Radiological Society of North America's 2012 annual meeting in Chicago last week was a "low-key" show that wrapped up "another slow year for technology innovation in medical imaging," according to an event post-mortem by a Frost & Sullivan analyst.

However, the analyst said he was "bullish" on imaging informatics, as it has intrinsic strengths that don't depend on modality innovation.

"My general impression is that for the most part, the major PACS vendors have their game together going into 2013," Frost & Sullivan analyst Nadim Michel Daher said on a webcast Thursday.

Attendance at RSNA 2012 fell by some 9 percent, according to early unaudited numbers shared by the society on its website this week. Preliminary totals for the last day of this year's show stand at 52,980, compared with last day totals of 58,232 in 2011. (Total audited attendance last year was even a smidgen higher than that, at 59,097).

Ongoing world economic troubles probably have something to do with lower numbers, as does a new policy that charged guests for registration (guest attendance was down by almost one-third most days, according to the preliminary account).

But Daher said falling attendance could have to do with the perception people wouldn't find "much innovation" or many "important things this year."

"It's true, on the show floor there weren't major technology breakthroughs, as far as new announcements that would be a game changer for a core modality, for example," he said. However, he did add that there were a number of "significant advances" shown for equipment, from increased computed tomography scanner rotation speed to technologies that reduced radiation dose.

"Slice wars" ends

Daher said one big change was that RSNA 2012 might mark the end of the so-called "slice wars," which had vendors of CT equipment competing — at least in their marketing — over which machine has the most slices.

The slice measuring contest was abandoned, Daher said, as vendors now emphasize more affordable, mid-tier 64-slice systems, possibly to compete with growing ranks of Asia-based competitors offering lower cost fare. Siemens Healthcare, for instance, showed a 64-slice CT scanner that will go for around $500,000 and was largely made in China.

"That's really indicative of the attention of the vendors," Daher said.

Dose-tracking

On the imaging informatics front, Daher said vendors are pushing third-generation PACS offerings that support "enterprise imaging." In this, many developers are switching the emphasis from productivity tools to business intelligence and analytics dashboards that allow better monitoring, control and communication.